1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to puff snacks, which provide crunchy light taste by puffing grains, and to a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly to a puff snack that contains coffee beans as raw material and to a method of manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Puff snacks, which have crunchy light taste, are products manufactured from grain, such as corn, wheat is or rice, through a process of pressurizing and heating in an extruder for gelatinization (or alphanization), and then puffing, shaping and drying.
It has been impossible, however, to obtain a crunchy light puff snack by using coffee beans, one kind of grain to be raw material, in order to make a puff snack which has the characteristic coffee flavor, because coffee beans would not puff, if fed into an extruder, pressurized and heated like grain as rice, wheat or corn.
For that reason, the single method to obtain puff snacks with characteristic coffee flavor has been to add coffee flavor indirectly to crunchy light taste by coating puffed and shaped material grains, such as rice, wheat or corn, with coffee powder or flavoring liquid.
However, the process, which intended to obtain a coffee puff snack by previously shaping a puff snack of other grain and later coating it with coffee powder or flavoring liquid has been complicated, because with this process, coffee flavor is added only over the surface of the snack and the flavor does not become uniform inside and outside of it, and besides, it is impossible to shape the snack with coffee flavor directly in one process.
Moreover, a crunchy light snack with characteristic coffee flavor hitherto known acquires desired crunchy taste by being baked to form layers inside of coffee beans. Though this snack has coffee flavor, it is too bitter to eat without adding any other flavoring liquid over it, such as chocolate, because this snack is just made from carbonized coffee beans. Therefore, it is not worth naming this snack a puff snack with characteristic coffee flavor.